The picture above is now, almost, iconic. It is Arthur Fleck who becomes Joker, in the 2019 film. We first see him as a clown who is mugged by a group of kids in Gotham City. He is advertising a closing down sale and expertly juggling a sign announcing the store’s closure. He chases the youths down a side street where they mug him and beat him up. They fake great delight in their beating whilst Arthur lies on the ground trying to protect himself. There is something pathetic about this grinning clown whose face is stuck in a manic grin when he is clearly in pain.He later sums up his life thus “I used to think life was a tragedy. But now I realise it’s a comedy.” To see a man lying on the ground in severe pain moves us. We feel for him. But when this man is a clown in full fancy dress, it’s hard to know how to respond. It’s almost a perverse piece of slapstick, an extreme custard pie in the face moment. How should we respond? (This is the genius of Todd Phillips’ film. It is a post-modern commentary on that age old split of Victim / Perpetrator.)

This pain echoes a much earlier part of his life where we come to understand that as a child he was a victim of neglect from his mother, Penny. At one she was admitted to Arkham Asylum, although we are not told why. We also discover that her story about having been a lover of one of the Wayne family, is delusional. (It becomes very difficult to follow this thread but we might see this idea as a grandiose delusion being used by Penny to defend herself from a much more impoverished view of herself. In any event, it gives us a picture of a damaged boy, who becomes a damaged adult, who as Joker becomes a symbol of all that is wrong with contemporary America.

Two days before the outbreak of WW2, the poet W H Auden wrote a poem called September 1st 1939. In it he has the line “Those to whom evil is done, do evil in return.” Here we seem to have a clue about the grins of Joker. He is neglected as a child by a mentally ill mother. Born and raised in poverty and social deprivation. Exploited by his boss and mocked by almost all of society. Not surprising that he is angry.

I’ve now seen Joker three times, and will doubtless see it a few more times. It fascinated me and moved me. Despite the violence, I found myself wanting to care for the damaged Arthur rather than to punish the damaging Joker. An unexpected reaction, I found. But I’ve “done” Mental Health work for more than 30 years. So maybe my perceptions are questionable.